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JOANNA
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DESCRIPTION
A creation for Luna Negra Dance Theater, directed by Gustavo Ramírez Sansano.
Guest Choreographer: Asun Noales.
Asun Noales once again takes her work abroad as guest choreographer. On this occasion, the Chicago-based company Luna Negra Dance Theater, under the direction of Gustavo Ramírez Sansano, commissioned her to create a new piece inspired by an icon of Hispanic history and culture.
Noales found her muse in Joanna I of Castile, known as Juana la Loca. The drama, passion, and madness surrounding this historical figure fuel the choreographer’s imagination in a visceral exploration of emotion through striking imagery.
During a two-and-a-half-week residency in Chicago—on the 19th floor of a downtown high-rise, home to Luna Negra’s studios—Noales created Juana over the course of thirteen intense days for ten dancers. The work premiered on October 1, 2014, at the prestigious Harris Theater in Chicago, alongside pieces by Michelle Manzanales (Assistant Director of Ballet Hispánico, New York) and Gustavo Ramírez Sansano himself.
The following text, drawn from the historical narrative, became the inspiration and synopsis of the piece:“A woman, eight months pregnant, walks through the fields of Castile at night, following a silent procession illuminated by torches. They carry a coffin containing the remains of her young husband, dead three months prior. Around her walk armed guards, friars, and elderly women. She hides her face beneath a veil, yet everyone knows she is the richest and most powerful woman in the world—Queen Joanna I of Castile—fleeing the plague in Burgos to bury her husband, Philip I, in Granada beside Queen Isabella the Catholic.”
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GALLERY
